Business wins birth control ruling

A U.S. district judge in Colorado on Friday blocked the Obama administration from enforcing its requirement that a Colorado employer provide its workers with insurance coverage of contraceptives without a co-pay.

The judge issued a three-month temporary injunction, allowing for further legal review of the case brought by a small Catholic business.

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The ruling applies to one specific business, and does not stop the whole rule from going into effect next Wednesday.

"On balance, the threatened harm to plaintiffs, impingement of their right to freely exercise their religious beliefs, and the concomitant public interest in that right strongly favor the entry of injunctive relief," Judge John L. Kane, an appointee of former President Jimmy Carter, wrote in the order.

The move comes just five days before the policy, part of the health care reform law, was to go into effect. The ruling, which assumes that the policy could ultimately be found unconstitutional, could reignite a few months before the elections the religious liberty controversy that surrounded the policy earlier this year.

The harm of temporarily blocking the enforcement of the preventive care mandate in this case "pales in comparison to the possible infringement upon plaintiffs' constitutional and statutory rights," Kane wrote.

In a statement Friday night, Mitt Romney cheered the decision and declared that “freedom of conscience has won an important victory.”

“Today’s injunction preventing the federal government from forcing one family business from having to choose between keeping its doors open and violating its faith is a step in the right direction. But it is only a step, not the end of the struggle,” Romney said. “We must ensure that the same freedom to live according to one’s faith is available to all Americans.”

HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said she was “disappointed” in the ruling.

“We are confident that as this case moves through the courts, the policy that most health insurance plans cover contraception will be upheld,” Sebelius said. “Preventive services are critical to women's health and the Administration is committed to ensuring women have access to the health care they need regardless of where they work. Health decisions should be between women and their doctors, not their employers.”

The decision also drew fire from reproductive rights supporters. “Contraception is basic health care for women, and we are disappointed that the judge didn’t see it that way,” said Nancy Keenan, president of NARAL Pro-Choice America.

The Obama administration now has the option of asking Kane or a higher court to prevent the injunction from going into effect. Judges typically look favorably on such requests from the federal government.

Hercules Industries, an HVAC company owned by a Catholic family, said that the policy violated its religious beliefs forbidding the use of contraceptives.

There are more than two dozen lawsuits challenging the contraceptives policy, but most have been filed by religious institutions that qualify for the administration's one-year "safe harbor" policy. As a private, secular, for-profit business, Hercules did not qualify for the one-year delay and would have had to cover contraceptives as soon as its next health insurance plan year began a few months from now.

Kane made clear at the end of his 18-page ruling that it did not apply to any other case.

"This injunction is ... premised upon the alleged substantial burden on Plaintiffs' free exercise of religion — not to any alleged burden on any other party's free exercise of religion," Kane wrote. "It does not enjoin enforcement of the preventive care coverage mandate against any other party."